Self hunting

[Burn]

geting my first falcon this year (gyr x sakr) for crow hawking and a was told last week that a have to watch out for the bird self hunting after it becomes confident. how will a stop the bird self hunting ?

[Jack]

Thats easy. Never slip the falcon until you are sure of your slip. She will self hunt anyway. That is what she thinks she is doing when she is after the crows. You just control the situation. Never release a falcon on speculation or you will spoil her to this self hunting and check flying at distant quarries. Find your quarry. See that it is in a flyable situation and that it can be engineered to go pretty much like you want it. Wind and direction, cover, all that goes into it. A Manual of Falconry by Mike Woodford has a section about rook hawking. He says never to slip at crows. You figure that one out. But it does give you some good advice as to setting up the slips.

Jack

[Haggard Tiercel]

I would also suggest getting her straight back to the lure if she misses rather than let her cruise around.

It also helps if she is keen as she will be straight off the fist and get down to business. A touch high and she can become more choosy.

If self hunting takes hold, she will ignore intended quarry and look around for an easy target.

[CloudBase1664]

[QUOTE=haggard tiercel;788766]I would also suggest getting her straight back to the lure if she misses rather than let her cruise around.

I would agree with this .Sakers in particular have a tendancy to cruise about looking for an easier option (prospecting) If your hawk refuses it's intended quarry .Lure it back , hood it up and try again later.

Dave

[Gyr69]

A Manual of Falconry by Mike Woodford has a section about rook hawking. He says never to slip at crows. You figure that one out.

Jack

Jack I would like to know what he means by that statment:confused:

[Jack]

After he makes this statement he goes farther to say rather than an absolute prohibition, one should be very cautious about slipping at crows. Mike gives us 11 rules for flying rooks, which is a flight directly out of the hood.
1. Do not slip in unsuitable country

2. Always slip dead into the wind

3. Do not take too close a slip

4.Do not slip if there are other rooks to be seen on your flanks

5.Do not slip at a widely scattered flock of rooks

6. Do not slip at rooks until they have risen into the air.

7. Do not slip an experienced falcon at a rook on passage. I would guess that this one would apply to any falcon.

8. Do not slip at jackdaws

9. Do not slip at crows, and you have read what I already wrote, but he wrote an entire page on that one.

10. Do not slip in unsuitable weather

11. Resist all temptation to slip against your better judgement.


I have made Edmond Bert's, An approved Treatise of Hawks and Hawking into an Ebook. I would do this book too if it were considered public domain. I do not know how to find out about this stuff and it may now be so.

Jack

10.

[Toro]

thanks jack, great stuff ,,,,,

[Gyr69]

Thanks for that Jack.